Alpha 1 (Crunchyverse)
Alpha 1 is the premier team of Hero Factory. It has gone through numerous incarnations over the years, and its main goal is to detain villains that plague the universe. History The Mission to Minus After the events of Brain Attack, Alpha 1 was off the hook for a while. However, this would change quite quickly. Leader Preston Stormer was notified of a planet where Frost Beasts had taken refuge after almost all of the brains were eradicated. Determined to take on the problem, all nine of Alpha 1's members went to Minus to fight the Frost Beasts. The battle was long and hard, and many plot twists happened along the way. A notable occurrence was the debut of Adrian Flowe, who managed to track down Alpha 1 on his own. Flowe arrived on Minus at just the right time, literally. Rocka was about to get clawed to death by a Frost Beast. But just as the beast raised its arms, Flowe swooped into action, killed the beast, and saved Rocka's life. Shocked, Rocka brought Flowe back to Alpha 1 and they were stunned to hear Flowe's story. Flowe would join Alpha 1 for the rest of the mission, which was met with mixed opinions. Furno, Stormer, Rocka, and Stringer liked the idea of Flowe on the mission. They thought he was a promising recruit with a lot of untapped potential. However, Bulk, Breez, Evo, and Surge didn't like the idea of Flowe getting special treatment from the higher-ups at Hero Factory. Nex stayed out of the matter. Flowe was ultimately let onto the team for the duration of the mission. While Alpha 1's mission on Minus was successful, it proved to be the beginning of the end for this era of Hero Factory. After this, the team would go on yet another mission with Adrian Flowe- this time to catch The Mentor. Mission For The Mentor After the completion of the Minus Mission, Alpha 1 was notified about the whereabouts of a notorious criminal and former Hero Factory employee The Mentor. Adrian Flowe was created by The Mentor and happened to know Planet M quite well. So, Flowe joined Alpha 1 for another mission, much to the chagrin of Evo, Breez, and Bulk. Stormer stepped back as the leader of Alpha 1 for this mission, letting Furno and Flowe take control. Behind the scenes, Stormer had been contemplating stepping down as the leader of Alpha 1 and that the mission on Planet M would be a good place to see who could potentially become a new team leader. Flowe was an obvious frontrunner to lead this mission because of his knowledge of Planet M, and Furno was expected to inherit Stormer's place as Alpha 1 leader from the day he was created. This would be the perfect time for Stormer to take a backseat in Alpha 1, and it showed. Furno and Flowe worked quite well both together and with the rest of the team. With Furno's expertise as a member of Alpha 1 and Flowe's assertiveness and confidence, Alpha 1 was overall quite happy with the way this mission was going. The team encountered multiple roadblocks while trying to get to The Mentor's lair. Alpha 1 encountered the first known Cyber-Savage hybrid, a cross between a Scorpio and a Thornraxx. The hybrid species ran rampant on Planet M, and was initially a huge threat to the mission as a whole. This is because some of these hybrid species (nicknamed Scorpraxx) were known to be unpredictable. While some Scorpraxx were based on the ground and were more stealthy, others were air-based and were harder to locate and attack. As the mission progressed, however, Scorpraxx became much easier to manage and less frequently seen. Not only were the Scorpraxx a problem, but The Mentor was as well. He, along with his creations, seemed to have been keeping tabs on Alpha 1 ever since they landed on Planet M. When it seemed Flowe was leading Alpha 1 to The Mentor's lair, he and his creations would up and leave before the team could even find them. This happened on numerous occasions. While Flowe was blamed for these mistakes early on, it was soon realized that everybody was to blame and that everybody at Alpha 1 had to become extremely stealthy in order to catch The Mentor. Alpha 1 was also concerned about Stormer's physical health during this time. Alpha 1 members suspected that Stormer was taking a back seat on this mission due to his declining physical health, which was not the case. While Stormer said this numerous times, the rest of the team grew suspicious. Finally, after almost half a year of trying, Alpha 1 was finally growing closer to The Mentor's lair. The team was excited to detain the long-wanted fugitive, and Adrian Flowe himself was excited to get revenge on his creator. After a bit of digging, Alpha 1 had finally found The Mentor's Lair. He, along with his 10 creations, were surprised to see that their location had been compromised. It was a perfect match- Alpha 1 had ten members (including Flowe) at the time, and The Mentor had 10 creations. This fight would end it all. It was a long and hard battle, which Alpha 1 barely won. Flowe commandeered the battle due to his extensive knowledge of The Mentor and Planet M, but both Furno and Stringer were both valuable assets to the team. However, something happened to Stormer that would shake Hero Factory to its very core. One of The Mentor's creations, a beast of a creature that resembled something of a Thoraxx, Dragon Bolt, and a Frost Beast all rolled up into one (aka Ares), shot a bolt of electricity so powerful into veteran hero Bulk's core that it almost killed him. Even Surge, who was in moderately close proximity to Bulk during that time, was damaged by the blast. Eventually, Alpha 1 came out on top, with 6 out of 10 of the Mentor's Creations being killed, and 4 out of the 10 being put into stasis and brought back to Makuhero City. The Mentor was detained and put in a maximum security prison. End of an Era All of Alpha 1 was happy that the mission to Planet M went well. However, they were more worried about Bulk, Surge, and Stormer than anything else. While Stormer was still on the fence about stepping down as Alpha 1 leader, Bulk and Surge were both recovering from their injuries at an incredibly slow rate. For the time being, Bulk and Surge remained inactive. After going on a few minor missions with only seven members, Alpha 1 received some good news- Surge was healthy enough to become active again. Lucky for Surge, his injuries healed as quickly as they possibly could have. The same couldn't be said for Bulk. Due to the severity of Bulk's injuries, the executive staff at the Hero Factory Medical Facility (or HFMF) determined that in order to stay alive, the veteran hero had to retire from active duty. Devastated, Bulk announced his retirement from Alpha 1 in a tearful Press Conference. Bulk would later become a member of the Hero Factory Board of Directors, a position he still holds today. After all of this, Alpha 1 was bummed. They had just lost a veteran hero to injuries, and were worried about Stormer, who was becoming more distant from his teammates by the day. Stormer was still debating whether to step down as Alpha 1 leader or stay on the team for one more mission. Torn on the issue, Stormer went to Hero Factory founder Akiyama Makuro for advice. Stormer told Makuro about the predicament in detail, hoping to get a definite answer. According to Stormer, Makuro only told him one thing- "Do what you think is right, my friend." After debating about it for a while and thinking about Makuro's advice, Stormer finally made a decision. He was going to step down as Alpha 1 team leader. One day, Stormer called Furno into his office. Stormer told Furno about his intentions to retire and step down as Alpha 1 leader, and how he wanted Furno to become the leader of Alpha 1. Honored, Furno accepted the offer. A formal announcement was made the next day. When asked about what he would do after leaving Alpha 1, Stormer told reporters that he would become a trainer at the Hero Training Center (or HTC) and become a member of the Hero Factory Board of Directors. Thus began a new (and controversial) era of Alpha 1 with Furno in charge. Trouble in Paradise With Furno now in charge, Alpha 1 was divided. While Rocka, Surge, and Stringer enjoyed the fact that Furno was in charge, Breez, Evo, and Nex weren't as hyped. The latter three felt as if Furno wasn't as deserving of a leadership role at this point, and that someone like Stringer should take the reins until Furno was ready. This opinion was shared by some citizens of Makuhero City, but most agreed that Furno was ready to be the leader of Alpha 1. Even with the divisiveness between the team, Alpha 1 still kept doing their regular missions. However, everybody knew that for every day Alpha 1 was together, their morale was going down. After a streak of unsuccessful missions, Breez, Evo, and Nex became even more fed up with Furno. Even Surge, a friend of Furno's and a strong advocate for his leadership, was growing resentful of him. All of these feelings culminated in a mission to the planet Revol. The Mission to Revol was in response to a call from a civilian saying that industrial-grade explosives were being planted inside Centrol, the official government building of Revol. The bombs were scheduled to go off at around 6:00 PM. The call was received at 11:00 AM, giving Alpha 1 seven hours to defuse the bombs and save Centrol. Furno led his team to Revol quite quickly and Alpha 1 was at Centrol by around 12:30 PM. While on the phone with Hero Factory, the civilian reporting the explosives also mentioned that there were eight explosives- one on each floor. Alpha 1 arrived at Centrol and quickly decided to split up. Furno, Stringer, Evo, and Nex would take Floors 1-4, while Breez, Surge, and Rocka would take Floors 5-8. Surge, Breez, and Rocka defused all three of their bombs quite quickly and relayed their instructions to the rest of the group. Furno took charge of his group, but it was much more ineffective at bomb defusion than Breez, Surge, and Rocka were. Furno also kept misinterpreting Surge's instructions on how to defuse the bomb, making the whole operation feel much more rushed. Furno was also quite rude to his teammates, not letting them help him while he tried to defuse the bomb. Eventually, only one bomb had to be diffused. The time was 5:25 PM. The bomb was scheduled to go off at 6:00 PM. Furno continued to misinterpret Surge's instructions, and Evo was fed up. Angry and concentrated, Evo managed to defuse the bomb in about ten minutes. When everybody realized how easy it was to defuse those explosives, Evo finally snapped. Usually, Evo was calm. But he (along with Nex and Breez) pulled no punches on the way back to Makuhero City. Once Alpha 1 got off of their ship and were back at home, Evo, Nex, and Breez announced that they would be leaving the team due to Furno's leadership. With only four members left on the team, Alpha 1's future was unknown. After these events transpired, Furno announced that he would be stepping down as team leader and decided to hand the leadership role over to Jimi Stringer. Furno realized that he wasn't ready to become a leader and wanted someone who was ready to be in charge. Stringer's first order of business was to ask Nex, Evo, and Breez if they wanted to return to Alpha 1. Surprisingly, Breez accepted the offer. However, Nex and Evo declined, saying they didn't want to work with Furno for the time being. Rebuilding At this point, the team consisted of Stringer, Furno, Rocka, Surge, and Breez, with Nex and Evo creating Hotshot Team along with Adrian Flowe, Jacob Primus, and Rantek (see Hotshot Team for further information). Stringer proved to be an effective leader of Alpha 1 and was commended by Akiyama Makuro and Preston Stormer for his ability to take up such an important role on such short notice. Stringer was a great fit for leading the group, as he was the most experienced out of all five of the Alpha 1 members at the time. Stringer was also praised for his ability to keep his team calm under pressure. He seemed to work well with a smaller team, as missions were completed much more quickly and much more in-depth than ever before. Morale was up, and crime was down. So far, it seemed as if it was a good move to put Stringer in charge of Alpha 1. But of course, not everybody in Alpha 1 was as happy as Stringer was. Surge always had a love for exploration, and when he joined Alpha 1, he thought that said exploration would be prevalent in Alpha 1's missions. This was true for quite a while, until Stormer retired. After everything with Furno, Surge was excited to have Stringer lead the team, as they had been known to share a common bond of exploration. However, it seemed that missions were becoming shorter and more frequent, meaning that they were less exploration-oriented. While Surge wasn't angry at Stringer or mad at anybody, he was just losing interest in Alpha 1. He wanted to go on long-term adventures to other planets and study their climate while also fighting some of the most notorious villains in the universe. Which is why one day, after a local mission was completed, Surge told Alpha 1 that he would be quitting so that he could become an adventurer and live life the way he wanted to. While unhappy about the situation, Stringer held no hard feelings against Surge and let him go on his merry way. With that, Alpha 1 was now down to four members. Stringer than decided he needed to call in a few favors to bring back some old friends. It had been about 1 and 1/2 years since Stringer had taken control of Alpha 1, and only about two weeks since Surge had left. Overall, the team was doing well, but they knew they needed some more members to truly get back on track. This turned out to be a great coincidence, as something happened over at Hotshot Team that would help Alpha 1 acquire some new talent. While on Hotshot Team, Rantek was growing frustrated with teammate Adrian Flowe. Eventually, Rantek snapped and tried to kill Flowe. Rantek was detained by his former friend, and this left only four members on Hotshot Team (Nex, Evo, Flowe, and Primus). The situation was a mess, and Nex and Evo were looking for a new challenge. That's why it was perfect when Stringer offered both of them spots on Alpha 1. They accepted, and Hotshot Team officially dissolved. With six members now on the roster, Alpha 1 was ready for something big. They wanted more than several minor missions. They wanted to fight something or someone so monumental, so insane, that it would change the course of history. And that mission was coming up. Hunt for the Hunter After returning from a minor mission just outside of Makuhero City, Alpha 1 received some major news- Core Hunter was alive. It seemed that after being shot by Surge during the events of the Doom Box, Core Hunter entered Limbo. While not much is known about Limbo, it is known that it is a place between Life and Death. Core Hunter managed to escape Limbo quite quickly and ended up on a asteroid in the Doctra Belt. Core Hunter began to travel to Makuhero City in order to harvest the cores of all Alpha 1 members. By the time Alpha 1 was notified of this news, Core Hunter was on the planet Erax, a planet located close to Makuhero City. Alpha 1 left Makuhero City as soon as Core Hunter's location was revealed, tracking his every move. By the time Alpha 1 had landed in Erax, it seemed like their target was located in The Pit, an abnormally large crater frequented by miners. What Alpha 1 didn't know was what Core Hunter was doing in The Pit. When Alpha 1 arrived at The Pit, they saw their target- Core Hunter. Upon closer examination, it seemed like Core Hunter was trying harvest a core from someone. Stringer sent Breez, Rocka, and Furno out to investigate while Evo, Nex, and Stringer lagged behind. Breez reported that Core Hunter was indeed trying to harvest a core, and that the core belonged to former Alpha 1 member Mark Surge. With that, all of Alpha 1 hopped in to try and save Surge from Core Hunter. The team caught Core Hunter at just the right time, as Surge's core was not very badly harmed. Stringer instructed Surge to stay back with Evo and get to Alpha 1's ship ASAP. TBW Trivia * Please keep in mind that 's version of Alpha 1 is identical to the canon, all the way up until the end of Breakout. Also, Invasion from Below never happened in the Crunchyverse. For a canon history of Alpha 1, click here. Category:Originally Canon Organizations Category:Hero Teams Category:Intact Groups